mmm, addendum to the previous post

I should add that my list of 40 things might change slightly,
if 2012 turns out to be the year where life as we know it, ends.

For those of you who are not aware of this. December 21, 2012,
is when the Mesoamerican or Mayan Long Count calendar ends.
This has led scientists, soothsayers and anyone with a dusty crystal
ball to believe that there will either be an Apocalypse or a complete
shift in human consciousness.

If I had a choice, I would vote for the latter to happen.

But you have to ask yourself, is this another scare like the Y2K bug?
Or like the Medieval times where the Apocalypse was predicted and
people were lying naked on their rooftops awaiting the end? Only to
see the sun rise yet again the next morning, albeit buck-naked
and shivering?

Still, why is it that when you Google '2012', it comes back with
226 million hits? Could it be that the human race, just loves themselves
a little bit of drama?

40 Things to do before I turn 40

Tomorrow, I will be turning 34. So for this birthday, as a little
to-do list gift to myself, I've decided to finally complete and
post the following.

The idea for a 40 things list originated with my dear friend,
Liezel. Only, she drew hers up in good time, as is normally
the case with her.

It took me a bit longer to compile my list, mainly because I
didn't know what the hell to put on it. But finally, here goes:

1) Host a solo exhibition of paintings
2) Host a solo exhibition of photographs
3) Learn to speak Spanish fluently
4) Learn to dive
5) Learn to make the perfect omelette
6) Write and illustrate a children's book
7) Find my place in the world
8) Plant and eat the fruit of my very own fig tree
9) Give up my nail-biting habit and go for my
first manicure ever
10) Visit Cuba
11) Spend time assisting a renowned photographer
12) Have my pictures published in National Geographic
13) Meet Oprah Winfrey
14) Visit Iceland to see the aurora borealis
15) Change careers
16) Visit Mexico during the 'Day of the Dead' celebrations
17) Go to the 10 year Mill Vill Anniversary in 2010
18) Watch more sunsets and sunrises
19) Learn web design
20) Design and print my own t-shirt range
21) Spend at least 4 weeks in a Buddhist monastery
22) Learn to do an unsupported handstand
23) Do a Yoga Teacher Training course
24) Learn to swim properly
25) Visit Helen Martins' Owl House in Nieu Bethesda
26) Read 50 to a 100 books every year
27) Learn to travel lighter (emotionally and literally speaking)
28) Complete a jewellery design course
29) Live a greener life
30) Back-pack through South America for 4 months or longer
31) Get involved in an AIDS or poverty charity or community
initiative in Africa,
32) Learn to cook proper Indian food
33) Learn to love unreservedly
34) Work or study in the design industry in Scandinavia at least once
35) Learn to be a better hiker, and better outdoorsy person in general
36) Visit Alaska, before the glaciers disappear
37) Take a year off from having a 'proper job' to just travel, paint,
take pictures and live a entirely bohemian life
38) Take life less seriously by laughing longer and more often
(especially at myself)
39) Write down 5 things each day that made me feel happy or grateful
40) Remember to live more in the moment, since this moment is
the only one we ever really have

An ambitious 6-year plan? Perhaps. A lot of adventure in store? Definitely!

consume less. experience more. (TM)

Well. That there would be my motto for the year.

In an extremely funny twist of fate - glittering, glorious Dubai has
made me supremely anti-materialistic and more pro living a simpler,
greener life. You know the kind where you actually interact with people,
and you're part of a community? You might even be tempted to start
growing some of you own food. Yes, get your hands dirty, so to speak.

That's why I'm cutting down and cutting back this year. Spending and
consuming less of this planet's resources and I'm all about having
more and better experiences. Because that's all you're ever really left
with at the end of the day.

You can order the organic cotton t-shirt here :)

Ode to all of the things I did not want to see

We sometimes have the tendency to store the stuff we don't want to
deal with in the back of the closet. We close our eyes to them and label
them as being too painful, too embarrassing, they just don't fit in with
our ideal of what the 'perfect me' should look like.

I spent most of this year venturing forth into the proverbial, belly of
the beast. Or what I previously thought of as my 'dark side'. And what
I discovered there at the back of the closet was that was that many of
them weren't demons at all, but beautiful undiscovered and disowned
parts of myself. These are the really 'juicy' bits of our personality, so we
might as well polish them up and put them on display.

This painting is a little tribute to my journey this past year.

meet big mama

Well folks, this here is Big Mama. She is the latest addition to
my camera collection and also my first proper digital SLR, the
Canon 40D! Very exciting.

I have a feeling her and I will be embarking on lots of grand
adventures together.
:)

reading the instructions is sometimes helpful

I have one of those inflatable mattresses, which come in really
handy when one has guests over and you run out of beds.
Naturally, if one has an inflatable mattress, so one should also
have the little electrical pump to go with it.

This pump can be plugged into your wall socket at home or when
you go campingit can be plugged into the car's lighter outlet.

The first couple of times I had plugged the pump into the wall
socket and I inflated the queen-size mattress with the pump, it
worked just fine. But then when I hauled it out again, it suddenly
started running out of air. Having only my limited knowledge of
electronic devices to fall back on, I assumed that just like a
hairdryer, the motor had burnt out.

I decided that I would simply go and buy another pump and
then take the older one back in it's place to get a refund, because
at this point in time, I had long since thrown away the receipt.
Sometimes one just needs to be a little resourceful. Or so
I thought.

Only thing was that when I tried to use the new pump, it inflated
the mattress halfway and then started to make the suspiciously
familiar noise which I by now equated with the motor burning out.
How was this possible? I was fuming and my friend had to sleep on
the couch for the weekend, because I sure as hell wasn't going to
buy a third pump.

Taking stock, I now had two useless pumps, one receipt and in
between buying the two, their packaging had also changed which
would probably make it harder to explain to the store that they were
both actually virtually brand-new.

Nonetheless, I put both in the boot of my car, with the solid intention
of going back to the store and lecturing them on keeping a better brand
of inflatable mattress pump.

Looking back, that was a year ago. In the meantime, the pumps
had ended up back in my room, in the back of my closet and lay
there forgotten.

This past weekend, I was clearing out some of my closets, getting rid
of things, when none other than the two pumps surface again.

A little voice in the back of my head said that I should really give
them one more try, before relegating them to the recycling bin.
I plugged each one in and turned them on. The first one, nothing.
The second one, gave a sigh like a tired old car that was on its last wheels.

In a fit of frustration, I pulled out the little multi-lingual instruction
manual. And there in plain Oxford English at the very top of the
list under the heading of INSTRUCTIONS it states: 'Pump must be
charged before use and is not designed for inflation directly from
household AC power sources.'

Right. Well that would pretty much explain everything. I left those
little suckers to charge for 10 hours and sure enough, when I
unplugged them and flipped the switch, the high whining noise
emanating from those black pumps would have put any respectable
vacuum cleaner to shame.

Needless to say I am now the very proud owner of two inflatable
mattress pumps in perfect working order. Any takers?

forthcoming attractions

A few weeks ago, I was chatting to my super-inspirational friend,
Rita Dhankani, and I mentioned that I wanted to do an exhibition and
if she would interested in joining me.

Next thing I know, we have together a group of 8 designers
(from various backgrounds) and we are se-ri-ous-ly going to launch
an exhibition!

How exciting is this!?

Right. So all we have to do now is sort out all the little details,
such as gallery space, group name, theme, etc. Oh yeah, and produce
the actual pieces.

Watch this space for a Designers' Art Exhibtion coming to a town near you!
:)